Requizen

Staunch Defender gives a +1 to save in an aura for units that have not charged this turn.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/04/16/warband-focus-yltharis-guardians/ Sylvaneth Warband preview. Preliminary thoughts: Tricky warband more than a combat-focused one. 2 Hammer at worst on everything is quite reliable, but nothing 3D baseline means they're not focused on killing. 3W other than the tank means they pop fairly easy in combat as well, so they seem more of a "set up and bait" warband than anything brawl focused, other than Gallanghan. Still, it's usually easier and more reliable to add damage than dice, so 2 Hammer base could just be a great template to throw Great Strength/Gloryseeker/Trap/Twist the Knife onto. The inspiration effect is kinda interesting. I find that, especially with 3W warbands, that you're either full health or dead more often than not, so I feel like you're going to be "wasting" healing more often than not just to inspire, but it is quite reliable as far as inspiration effects go. Tainted Vitality on a blank board to inspire everything on T1 is pretty reasonable, and there are a handful of otherwise mediocre healing effects that you might include just to Inspire easily. The faction cards seem kinda meh: Leech Power is quite good vs Supremacy warbands or to score Scorched Earth, but can also be fairly pointless beyond just inspiring Ylthari Healing Amorpha is just a worse Healing Potion, only run if you already have Potion in your deck (or if it rotates out with the next city). Glade's Last Hope could be a great Objective if you run Shardgale/Tainted Vitality... but also mostly a dead card since healing is already iffy and healing 3 is a bit of a task. Curse of Dwindling good effect but bad casting without Innate/Tome of Incantations, and idk if these guys are heavy on Spells Writhing Roots is just a worse Invisible Walls Mesmerising Gaze is just a strictly worse Transfixing Stare that I suppose has the potential to turn off Change of Tactics. It just seems strange, since usually Faction cards are better versions of Neutral cards, but these all seem worse than their equivalents. Still, only a small fraction of the Faction cards, so we'll see more going forwards. Gut reaction build is to be a disruption/shutdown deck focused on denying the opponent their objective cards while taking Flex cards and just focusing on getting bits of Glory while your opponent gets none. Not sure how effective that is

Yeah I know they're not particularly excellent, but I like the models and I'm not playing hyper competitive with these Boyz 😁

Boarboyz - 2 units of 5 or 1 unit of 10? Maniaks feel better at 10 since you want to swing them all at once, but Boarboyz I'm not sure I care about the damage as much.

1) Swords are better, but Hammers are cooler, personal opinion. You're correct in that most people use them because the easy-build kits use them, and it doesn't really matter. The difference in damage is fairly negligible, as most of the punch in the unit comes from the Grandhammers. 2) Grandstaves are better against most targets, and allow you to fight in two ranks. If you take anything above the minimum, Grandstaves are recommended if nothing for the reach alone. Both are fine, though, since you get the Jazz Hands no matter which option you choose. 3) Yes and no. They are a solid choice, but most lists either run pure minimum Battleline (3x5 Liberators) or go heavy on Sequitors since they're very good for their points. Judicators are in an odd spot due to their price and the fact that their role is kind of hazy - Raptors and Ballistas shoot better, for the most part, and Liberators and Sequitors hold objectives better - but they're far from bad. If you want to use them, use them. They're not the killiest units in the game, but they are a Battleline unit that can participate in damage while holding side objectives and can occasionally pop off and deal solid damage to an important model. 4) Not cheesy at all, since you'd be so heavy into shooting that you don't really have room for much else. There will be armies that you table because they can't make it to you before dying, but there'd also be armies that just get to you and kill you since you have no models to hold objectives/screen with. Maybe there's a build there that loads up on Libs/allied Skinks, but just those 12 models together isn't really that broken. 5) If you mean the Gryph-Charger that comes in Soul Wars, yes he's extremely viable. If you mean the big Tauralon (which isn't a Griffon but looks like one), then... yes kinda but not really. He's a solid support unit with double casting and some reasonable melee potential, but you'd be better off taking the Gryph-Charger version instead and using those 100 points elsewhere. It's not bad, but not excellent. Both are fairly similar. Core is Stardrake with Staunch Defender + Castellant and then things to support. Relictor and Heraldor are good Support units, as is an Incantor for dispels. You might want bodies like 20 Sequitors, or beta-charge units like Evocators/Fulminators. Unkillable Stardrake lists will take Ignax's Scales and then focus on using the really hard to kill Stardrake to lock down poritions of the board while the rest of the army cleans up. This will often take the form of holding back the Stardrake, and then charging it into a threat in such a way that you lock it down for multiple turns or until he can get assistance from Fulmis/Evos to kill the unit. You may also invest more in debuffs/buffs to keep it alive, such as a Life Battlemage who can heal and give an extra shrug save, or multiple Relictors to pop out multiple -1Hit debuffs. Punch Yourself Stardrake is a variant where you take Smouldering Helm (or similar) as the Artifact and then stack Save buffs and Azyrite Halo to force the opponent to blow themselves up. This variant will often result in as many MWs reflected onto the opponent as attacks they made - I once had a mid-sized unit of skeletons force 12 saves and then take 17MWs back. With this build, you play much more aggressively with the Stardrake, forcing the opponent to attack it as much as possible. Your Stardrake often dies with this sort of build, especially against opponents with lots of MW output, but it generally deals far more damage than the previous version. Here's a general list for the former: Stardrake - Staunch Defender, Ignax's Scales, Keen Clawed Castellant Heraldor Incantor Liberators Liberators Liberators Fulminators Fulminators Skinks Skinks Skinks Everblaze Comet Geminids of Uhl-Gysh 2000/2000 Here's a possible list for the latter: Stardrake - Staunch Defender, Smouldering Helm, Keen Clawed Castellant Heraldor Incantor - Azyrite Halo Liberators Liberators Liberators Evocators x10 Sequitors x20 2000/2000 They're similar, but play differently on the table. The former wants to zone out with the throwaway units, and then hard engage with the Stardrake and Fulmis only once the opponent has committed to a position, moving out as a spearhead (or splitting off one of the three units depending). The second one wants to move up the board as a singular force, getting the Sequitors and Stardrake stuck in asap, so they might deal early damage and then sweep in with Heraldor + Evocators for the cleanup. I personally play a bit more cautious with my Stardrake games, so I play something similar to the first one a lot, but I could see either doing well at an event. The main difference in any case is what you charge and how, and how the support units work together on the table.

That's what the thread is for, fire away.

TBH it's not a big deal if they put it at 24" in Hero, I'll just put them and the Relictor in the sky T1 unless I'm sure the enemy is coming towards me (and can't reach/shoot them). The list is strong enough and honestly past the first turn you should be in 24" of most things you want to shoot anyways. Though I am looking at other lists for when the shoe falls. Between Skaven, Anvilstrike, potentially new Fyreslayers, and the inevitable Sylvaneth and Bonesplitterz updates, I think you'll start to see a non-zero amount of anti-shooting tech in armies, and then we'll have to start leaning on other things in our toolkit going forwards. Luckily, we're Stormcast, and have at least: Unkillable Stardrake, Punch Yourself Stardrake, Sacrosanct Spam, Gav Bomb (or variant thereof), and a potential heavy Cav list I'm looking at. There's a lot of potential even if Anvilstrike takes a hit.

I've always played it 30" in the Hero Phase. I make sure to ask a TO at the beginning of each event, and they have always ruled this way. There is no official GW FAQ regarding this issue, but I've had at least 3 TOs rule that "not moving in the Movement Phase" is still met if you're in the Hero Phase. Keep in mind this may change if you talk to your local judge/TO, but that's a different question. Translocation doesn't count as having moved, so you retain the extra 6".

You should do more than 3 Wounds per turn on average if you're getting within 18" for the rapid fire. Ballistas are much better with an Ordinator, but perform... fine without him. You can either drop them around the board to create MSU units that require focus, or dump a couple in your back lines to be a long range threat that covers your advance. They'll perform well enough for their 100 points as long as you roll average on your exploding hits, but 4 dropping in with an Ordinator is the real OG facekick.

@jhamslam I have not yet played against real Skaven filth, but I doubt it would give me much concern. The terrifying shooting is pretty short range, and they can't use Warp Fire Projectors unless you close the distance to them yourself. Even then, it's not particularly scary to most of the Anvilstrike list since we don't run giant units of anything, at most they'll hit the Skinks or Evocators for 5 MWs per Projector on average. Not terrifying imo. Jezzails are a bit more scary, since they can do the same things we do with popping Heroes, and losing the Relictor/Heraldor/Incantor is a big deal - but they don't get double tapping and if you can shut down the Gnawholes, they're pretty hard to position. Plus, if you're super scared of Jezzails, just put the Longstrikes up in the sky and shoot them first on the drop, no big deal. Honestly Skaven fall apart when you kill the Heroes - popping foot Skaven Heroes is easy as pie even with Look Out Sir, though killing the big ones can be a bit slower, especially the Screaming Bell. Even then, if they go Aggro with the Heroes you just Evo them to death on the countercharge. Plague Monks are pretty scary, but as PJetski said, you can stop their charges, and only a couple Rats can't kill Aetherwings super efficiently. Plus, you can always just chuck Evos into them and wipe most of the unit, even if you take MWs in response it's probably worth keeping the rest of your army alive. Or running in with the Incantor to Vial a chunk of them. It's not an easy win, I think, especially if their Heroes don't drop early and if they get off Vortex, but I don't think it's completely terrifying for the army by any means. It's much harder for Gav Bomb or TAC Ballista style lists.

You can mix weapons in a unit of Evos though. The only concern would be 2 Primes, but honestly that's rarely worth worrying about. Any ally is a reasonable trade, Skinks give more bodies, Heartrenders give some lategame mobility. Or 2 units of Aetherwings - you don't get the shenanigans that you would with Raptors, but it's still 2 units of excellent zoning and mobility that have to be dealthwith, for only 50 points per unit.

More, potentially, since the Infernoth hits all units with 3. But the Infernoth is only on 6s, and has to get in range, and the Spewer is on 6s unless it's a big enough unit, so it's not going to be as many as you think.

It's not bad at all, and you'll still catch a lot of people out. If you go for that list, though, I would possibly recommend combining the Evos into one unit and then dropping the Comet for something else. Comet isn't great in this list overall, since you only have 1 dude to cast it and he has no bonuses, not to mention if you drop it and then want to charge that area with your Evos, you could easily hurt yourself quite badly. 10 Evos attacking at once is much better, since you reduce the possibility of losing the second unit on the swing back. Depends on how you charge, of course, but if you're going in against a monster, for instance (like Terrorgheists, Thundertusks, etc), then you really want all of them swinging together.

As an aside, have there been any rumors on the 50 Shelves of Grey/Airbrush stuff? I remember seeing a picture of one in the White Dwarf?

Wall is impassable, all Endless Spells/Judgements/Invocations are considered Units/Models and therefore cannot be moved onto/over. My main issue with the Wall is that if you go second in the Battle Round, it could just pop off the board at the end of your turn and you get no use out of it.

Sure, but realistically getting more than 2, maaaybe 3 units in 3" at a time is pretty unlikely, especially with a random "move characteristic". So 2-4 MW on average, 6MW on a "good" position, still nothing special. If it was like all units within 6" or 12", then maybe it'd be better, but 3" bubble is quite small.

Infernoth is pretty meh, giant monster of Lava does average of 2MWs per turn and then might disappear. Fyrewall is pretty meh, if it works the same at Judgements, if you go second then it might just disappear before you get any use out of it. Flame Spitter is probably the best, at worst it's ranged MW shooting on a 3+, at best it becomes a turret that sticks around and messes with your opponent's head.

Hm, I don't think it's particularly great. You're trying to do two things - quad Ballista + Ordinator and Gav Bomb at the same time, but honestly if you're doing either one of those you want to go all in on it. The Ballistas are working as intended, but if you put them up in the sky you can't put more than Gav and 1 unit up there with him. If you're trying to Gavriel Bomb, he really wants to go up in the sky with at least like 800 points of units (2x10 Evos, or 10 Evos + 20 Sequitors, etc). If you want to go Ballistas, which it looks like you do, they're better with a solid ground force, probably something like 15-20 Sequitors with an Arcanum + Castellant. If you want to go Gav Bomb, drop the Ballista suite and take more Alpha Strike units. I don't think you can do both effectively at the same time.

Hm, I don't think that's correct. They don't get passive effects, but spells are spells and they just place effects on the targets. Otherwise there would be no reason for spells/prayers to differentiate between "choose a friendly unit" and "choose a friendly <KEYWORD> unit", which they do quite often.

Oh, didn't see that for Khorne. Yeah we'll have to see for Slayers though, and then eventually Sylvaneth in the future.

Especially if allied Heroes get access to the Invocations like you do with Endless Spells, I'm betting at least one is going to be very good much like the Khorne Axe etc.

From the preview panel, they mentioned the Terrain could be taken by any army for a price, so let's wait and see on that one. It's clearly Stormcast themed, so maybe we get a specific boost to it or something. I very much agree with the Battalions. There's like 3 in there that are worth running, the rest are too awkward or too expensive to use. Dropping points on some of the more obscure ones could really shake up Stormcast builds. Also doing something about the Lord Exorcist could actually make Grand Convocation interesting, but he's really just bad.

I could see point drops for certain things, but honestly we're in a solid place right now. We'll have to shift builds to compensate for the changing meta, of course, but that's expected.

A couple reasons. Mainly because it's expensive - if you want to run 1x9 Longstrikes and 2x3 Hurricanes + the Aetherwings, it's over 1000 points in that Battalion alone, and you really want the points around for the Evocators. It's somewhat cheaper if you go 3x3 Longstrikes, but then you lose out on the Anvils ability and that's really what makes the list work. I have been putting together a list using Vanguard Justicar, focusing on Hurricane Raptors as MSU damage dealers. I think it's just too pricey if you go for Longstrikes, but Hurricanes are extremely points-efficient and 18" isn't even that short of a range in the long run, so there's definitely something there.

Nah, some do already it just depends on the wording. Bless Weapons and Divine Light for Stormcast can target allies, and you used to be able to Lightning Chariot allies before they changed it to Translocation.